upstreet – 2011

In the seventh issue of upstreet, creative nonfiction shines like an LED sun. Its poignancy encourages the reader to think of his or her own life experiences. The creative nonfiction stands out, to this reviewer anyway, as nothing short of amazing. It is both inspirational and compelling. While the fiction and poetry in this issue were good, the creative nonfiction reminded me, over and over again, of why I love to read.

In the seventh issue of upstreet, creative nonfiction shines like an LED sun. Its poignancy encourages the reader to think of his or her own life experiences. The creative nonfiction stands out, to this reviewer anyway, as nothing short of amazing. It is both inspirational and compelling. While the fiction and poetry in this issue were good, the creative nonfiction reminded me, over and over again, of why I love to read.

Michael Martone crafts a brilliant essay, titled “Against the Beloved,” from a presentation about Kurt Vonnegut at the 2010 AWP Conference. Martone recalls his shock when an editor tells him that Kurt Vonnegut is a joke. Seasoned with time, he learns the difference between the ha-ha joke and the serious type of joke that Vonnegut pursues:

By that I don’t mean to invoke the dismissive connotation of slight, trivial, minor (what I think the editor thought he meant by “joke”), but I do wish to invoke the profound power, the mystery of the joke and the fool who jokes, equipped with little more than jokes to address and redress the world. I think now that the editor knew this too, labeling Mr. Vonnegut a fool when in fact the Fool.

Vonnegut comments on the world as it is rather than what it should be. Martone points out that in literature, no one wants to be honest in their portrayals and that everyone wants to glorify the past. Vonnegut worked with history, he “was and is the anti-historian, a dirty job but someone has to do it, not defusing the past but re-mining it in the reminding of it, resisting the sanding nature of History biases to blah, to make palatable the past.”

I found myself recalling Kathryne Irene’s nonfiction piece “Stained” for days after I’d read it. She dances between past and present with such finesse that I keep up easily and find myself hungry for her next revelation and admission. Her words made me cringe at all the appropriate parts and gave me goose bumps. When talking to her therapist, Irene admits: “I wanted to explain. I wanted to tell her how they never say anything. Not words. They moan and laugh and talk—talk that blurs. It turns to chatter. They use words that rattle, unformed in the back of closed mouths behind long wet teeth.”

Being raped, because she was gay, cut her deep and has been haunting her ever since. Instead of making our hearts break without a silver lining in sight, Irene lets us know that she is presently happy and has grown from her horrible past. She explains how her lover washes her with her skin while they are wrapped up in blankets and we are thankful that she has someone to heal her.

Robert Vivian comments on life, geography, and the questions we all think, if not ask. His opening is so poignant we are propelled forward against our will: “And every place hums a live bright wire in the air above its crown that’s tough to touch or hear except for the one who was born to be jolted by its unique electricity, which cracks the soul like the skeleton hand of lightening flash lightening up sheets of place.” Literature should make us think and not just about the story itself. Vivian masters and encourages this self-reflection and contemplation.

In this issue of upstreet, the creative nonfiction takes the cake with its ingenuity and freshness.
[www.upstreet-mag.org]